Lundin Mining Corp, Ivanplats Ltd shares plunge on Congo export ban

Lundin Mining Corp., a Canadian diversified mining company with investments in Africa, slumped the most in more than 18 months after the Democratic Republic of Congo banned exports of copper and cobalt concentrates.

Lundin Mining fell 9.9% to $3.73 at 1:08 p.m. in Toronto, after earlier falling 10% the most intraday since Sept. 22, 2011.

Shares of Ivanplats Ltd. also fell nearly 18% to $2.96 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, though there was no immediate indication that the Africa-focused miner’s projects would be affected by the ban.

Congo took measures to block exports of the metals to force mining companies to add value to the commodities before shipping them outside the country, Mines Minster Martin Kabwelulu said today in a phone message.

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Lundin Mining, based in Toronto, has a 24% stake in the Tenke Fungurume mining project in Congo, according to its website. Phoenix-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. operates Tenke and owns 56%. The remainder belongs to Congo’s state-owned mining company.

“We want companies to export mineral products with great added value,” Kabwelulu said. Producers of the commodities in Congo have 90 days to clear their inventories of concentrated minerals, he said.

Ivanplats’ Kamoa copper project is in Congo. A preliminary economic assessment released last September included plans for a concentrator and smelter.

The company, founded by mining entrepreneur Robert Friedland, said Thursday that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Congo’s state-owned power company to upgrade a nearby power plant, securing more electricity for Kamoa.

Ivanplats said on March 28 that it was planning a drilling program at its nearby Kipushi project, which includes a historic zinc-copper mine.

An Ivanplats spokesman could not immediately comment.

Congo was the world’s eighth-largest producer of copper and the biggest producer of cobalt last year, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Tenke, Congo’s biggest mining project, produced 11,669 metric tons of cobalt last year, according to data on Lundin Mining’s website.